TAMPA – In the past two days, Brian Cashman has double dipped, taking in minor-league games early in the afternoon and watching his major-league team at night.

While on the minor-league side, he mingled with coaches and got in some quality time chatting with touted pitching prospect Joba Chamberlain. Now that he runs all baseball operations – not just in title, but in reality – Cashman feels it is imperative to observe everything including minor-league games with just friends and family in attendance. Cashman’s tacit message is that he is both monitoring all that is going on and also that he cares about all of those working for him, not just those paid the big dollars for the big club.

But that is not the most interesting aspect of the two days. What is most noteworthy is how unaffected Cashman’s days were by the revelation that George Steinbrenner’s eldest daughter, Jennifer, had filed for divorce from Yankee general partner Steve Swindal.

That disunion will alter front-office dynamics as Swindal’s role is diminished or eliminated and Steinbrenner’s children become more involved in day-to-day operations.

Not long ago that would have impacted nearly every major employee, including a GM who has enjoyed a strong working bond with Swindal. Cashman, though, has consolidated his power so well and is said to have such a good relationship with Steinbrenner’s children that, for now, he is able to do his job as he always dreamed.

But be careful what you wish for, Cash? No matter which child assumes what role, the ultimate authority remains Steinbrenner. Cashman got all the baseball power. He also got all the responsibility and accountability. No longer can the blame be rerouted to Tampa or heaped onto a chain of command flow chart with more zigs and zags than a Reggie Bush open-field run.

The only baseball operations person with Steinbrenner’s ear now is Cashman. So this better not be the year the Yanks win 87 games and finish third rather than 97 and first.

“If I fall flat on my face, I have to just say sorry because the ownership group has given me full authority,” Cashman said.

Count me among the admirers of what Cashman has implemented since being given full authority after the 2005 season. His fingerprints are now all over the franchise, but the most overt place, especially for fans, is in player procurement.

He thought it was vital that the Yankees stop relying near solely on big-money free agency and stop fixating only on the 25-man roster, and re-open the spigot on all ways to bring players into the organization.

The Yankees had not made a Rule 5 pick since 1995 (Marc Ronan) and none had ever made the team. But Josh Phelps is likely to make this one. Darrell Rasner was a waiver claim. Brian Bruney was a released player. Mike Myers was signed only after the Yankees waited out the Red Sox’s decision not to offer him arbitration, so no draft pick was forfeited. In that draft last year, Cashman empowered his scouting director Damon Oppenheimer to take the best players and not worry about monetary demands. The results were Chamberlain and a widely hailed group.

High-priced stars such as Randy Johnson and Gary Sheffield were dealt and the system was reloaded with young arms. The best of the prospect base was protected, and no high-priced first baseman was chased in the offseason and no pitching is being pursued now despite rotation injuries. It is Yankee business done differently and the result is a deeper system, a lower payroll, more roster flexibility and a greater reliance on internal solutions.

Again, the philosophy is sound. But Cashman will be judged by if he is the right philosopher. Has he surrounded himself with the right people, and has the counsel of those people led to the right choices? Even when the organizational flow chart was in disarray, Steinbrenner never cared too much about the individual moves, he obsessed only on results. Nothing has changed with a clearer line of authority.

So the philosophy – no matter how sound – better produce wins, lots and lots of wins or else Swindal will not be the only executive on the outs with the Yankees.